How to Take Care of and Live With the Opera Ghosts
by fall12fall
Summary: Meet Erika Rose Larsen, a girl whose family is a bit more... phantasmal... and a lot more quirky then you'd expect. This is the story of her adventures with them, and your invited along.


_So I guess I have to give some kind of introduction about myself. Hi. My name is Erika Rose Larsen. I'm 16, have blonde hair, blue eyes, and rather tall. But you're all not here to learn about me, you're here to learn about my family and all the crazy stuff I have to do to deal with them. 'm heading home from school right now so yo-_

"Erika!"

_That's my boyfriend, Christen, I'll be right back._

"Hey there Erika." Christen said as he hugged me from behind. "You walking home?"

"Yea." I said blushing furiously.

"Mind if I walk you home then?"

"Not in the least bit."

We started a slow jaunt to my house which wasn't too far from the school.

"So, Erika, you know that we've been together for three years now, and … I would really like it if you would come over to my house tomorrow for dinner so you could meet my family."

I looked up at him, shocked. "Really?"

"yea. Neither of us has met each other's families, so I thought you could meet mine first. And maybe I could meet yours some other time."

I thought of my family and about he could not meet them. Ever. "Well, I don't know if you would want to meet mine, I have … um … quite the extended family living with me."

He laughed a bit. "I do too. Oh, look at that, were here." I looked up and saw that we had already reached my house. Christen kissed me softly before taking off to his own house, while I walked through the door.

_Now that you've met the single most wonderful person in the entire world, I now have to introduce you to my family, who you've all been waiting so patiently to meet. Now before I introduce you to them you should know that all the ficti- … Do you hear that? Nothing? EXACTLY! This house is always full of commotion! Hopefully they didn't end up killing one another…. That actually could have happened. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to have to sort this out before I introduce you to my family._

I ran into the living room to find Michael and Noodles (Well, everybody else calls him Ramin but I call him Noodles) sitting together watching the news. Now that really scared me. When those to hang out together that meant that something really bad happened. Those to hated each other Michael hated anything to do with the sequel and Noodles hated Michael because he hated him. When those to fought they were almost as bad when the other two fought.

"So… you two are hanging out together."

The two half-masked men looked up from the TV. "Oh, welcome home Erika."

"How was school?"

"Um…. Good. How are things here?"

"They started fighting again." Michael informed me.

"Really? That's the fourth time this month!"

"Charles was there when they started fighting again, you might want to talk to him, he's in the kitchen cooking dinner." Noodles supplied.

"Thanks." I went down the hall and turned left into the kitchen. Charles was standing at the island, mixing some kind of pasty batter.

"Oh, hello there, Erika, how was school today?"

"Good," I said taking a seat at the counter. "but I heard things didn't go so smooth around here today."

"Ah, so you heard that those two got in another fight."

"Yea. I was won- Julian!" I shouted. One of the few faces around here that wasn't disfigured popped around the corner. "What did I say about rats on the counter?" I said pointing to the offending rodents. He came and got them and sulked away while said rats gave me an evil look. "Anyway, as I was saying Charles, what exactly happened?"

"Oh it's no different than any of the other times, it started with the differences in story line and eventually exploded into the disfigured/ not disfigured argument."

"Ok. Is it safe that assume that Leroux fled down to the basement?" Just then a blast of organ music came from down in the basement. "Well that answers that question. Thanks, Charles."

"No problem at all, oh, and dinner will be at five, we'll be having pancakes." He said flinging the mixing spoon around.

"Alright Charles, see ya." I then started the trek down to the basement. On my way down I found Robert rigging up something with all the sheet music in the house and Lon trying to improve his water breathing device. Finally I reached the basement door and opened it, only to be blown back by a cacophony of organ music. "Leroux, I know your down there!" I shouted. In response, the music only got louder. "I'm coming down and I better not find any traps set!" I took one step down and almost had my head chopped off. I sighed and hop-skipped down the rest of the way.

When I finally did reach the bottom I had to squint to make out Leroux's frame that was bent over the organ. I moved to step towards him, but I fell in to an all too familiar hexagonal room. "Leroux! Let me out of here!" I shouted, kicking one of the tall mirrors. The organ music stopped and I had to check myself fast to keep my next kick from hitting the tall man. I crossed my arms and tried to look imposing, but there were few things more imposing then the original masked murderer. "Leroux."

"Erika."

"I heard that you and Gerard got into a fight."

"It wasn't Leroux's fault!" he yelled, slipping into his habit of talking in third person. "That man is as self-righteous as that boy and he doesn't have a disfigurement, it a sunburn!"

"Yes, yes, I know that, but you do owe him sum respect."

He scoffed. "Like what?"

"Your most recent image comes from him. Well, actually, your most recent image comes from Noddle's appearance in the 25th anniversary musical, but he represents the musical's sequel, although there has been talk that the council is going to replace Michael with Noodles and Ben Lewis is going to be the new image for the sequel….. I'm getting off topic and that's a conversation for a different time. The point is that you're the original! You set the stage for all the others, no others can compare, and because you're the original you have to show respect and take responsibility for the others."

He narrowed his eyes at me then sat back down at his bench. "Alright, I'll forgive him, this once, as long as he realizes he hardly has a disfigurement!"

I rolled my eyes and headed back upstairs. Since Leroux was in the basement, that meant the Gerard was probably in the attic. "M.L.!" I shouted. Soon a puff of smoke appeared and M.L. in full face mask.

"Yes?"

"Could you please check for me to if Gerard is in the attic?"

He walked into his smoke and reappeared seconds later.

"He's in the floor before the attic."

"You mean the third floor?"

"Yes."

"Thank you M.L."

"Not a problem, mademoiselle." Then he disappeared again.

I marched up the flights passing Claude reworking his Sonata for the millionth time, William shinning his mask/headgear, and Kay looking for his cat. When I reached the third floor I checked all the doors until I found the one that was locked and assumed that Gerard was in that one. I banged on the door as hard as I could. "Gerard I know you're in there! Open up!"

"NO!"

"Please?"

"No."

I sighed and knelt by the door. I dug out a paper clip and started picking the lock. When you live around this bunch, you learn to adapt. It only took a few seconds and I was in. "Gerard?" An annoyed harrumph sounded from the corner. "Gerard, are you going to spend the whole day sulking around up here?"

"Yes, I see no problem with that."

"What do I have to do to get you to stop moping around?"

"Remind me how much better I am then that freak."

I sighed. Honestly, it was like living with a bunch of five year olds. "You have a much larger fan base then Leroux, and most girls find you a lot more handsome then him."

He looked at me all proud. "Alright, I'll forgiv-"

"BUT… he is the original and you owe him some respect and your disfigurement does pale in comparison to some of the others." He looked at me, annoyed at me. "So now you can either get mad and go off on a rampage and have all the other Eriks kill you, or you can admit that maybe you were a little wrong and live."

He sighed. "Fine."

"Good." I marched down a flight and turned down the hall to my bedroom and flopped down on my bed, thoroughly exhausted.

_Well, I suppose you've all figured out by now my family's secret. Yes, they are all representations of the one and only opera ghost. You see, every fictional character in existence lives in our world, but they all have families that assigned to them to keep them in line. _

_Welcome to the wacky and wonderful world of the O.G.'s, we bid you welcome._


End file.
